StorageCraft Introduces Simultaneous Backup and Restore

The folks at StorageCraft are launching a new product, ShadowProtect Server 4.0, on April 21. It's full of enhanced and useful functionality, but there's one add-on to it that caught RCPU's attention during a lunch meeting this week. (By the way, we never miss an excuse to go to lunch, especially at Casa Brasil on Route 9 in Framingham.) 

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Posted by Lee Pender on March 31, 20100 comments


Users Happy with Windows 7 -- and with XP

Windows 7 is doing part of what Microsoft needed it to do. It's eliminating the specter of Vista and delighting customers. (There was a time when Microsoft folks used the word "delight" as if it was the last verb on the face of the earth.)

A Forrester Research study says that most early adopters are happy with Windows 7--86 percent, in fact. Great! The study also showed that, interestingly enough, plenty of consumers (43 percent) just plain went out and bought Windows 7 rather than obtaining it by buying a new PC.

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Posted by Lee Pender on March 31, 20103 comments


Windows Server Users Can Get onto Amazon's Cloud

Amazon and Microsoft have cooked up an offering through which some Windows Server users can apply their licensed to Amazon's cloud offering.

Posted by Lee Pender on March 29, 20100 comments


The Brave Last Days of Windows XP

If you've been to a grocery store--and it's hard to imagine that you haven't--then you've seen the tabloid headlines. Some Hollywood star, usually a washed-up sap whose fame flickered out 20 years ago, sadly succumbs to some awful affliction, and the tabloids at the supermarket checkout counter chronicle his or her journey into that good night.  

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Posted by Lee Pender on March 29, 201013 comments


Study: Removing Admin Rights is (Still) the Safest Way to Run Windows 7

BeyondTrust dropped in this week to tell us that eliminating administrator rights for end users can eliminate a lot of the vulnerabilities in Windows 7. It's handy information to have...except that BeyondTrust said just about the exact same thing a year ago. Well, at least we know that nothing has changed.

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Posted by Lee Pender on March 29, 20101 comments


IE8 Hacked in 2 Minutes -- and That's Not Too Bad

Not too bad for Microsoft, that is. Some experts were actually impressed that the browser held out for two minutes in the Pwn2Own hacking event . Good to know where that bar is set, then.

Posted by Lee Pender on March 29, 20102 comments


Google Ends China Censorship; Congress Unimpressed with Microsoft

Google won't censor its search results in China anymore, but Microsoft has been less committal to the idea of bucking the Chinese government's wishes. That has made for some tasty talking points for a few politicians this week.

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Posted by Lee Pender on March 25, 20101 comments


Microsoft Gives Peek at Office Communications Server 14

Due later this year, OCS 14 will be heavy on social networking and unified communications capabilities, as Redmond columnist Mary Jo Foley explains . And does Microsoft see a market for it? Oh, yeah. A pretty big one, actually.

Posted by Lee Pender on March 25, 20100 comments


Sorting Out Windows Phone 7

Never count Microsoft out. We've said it here many times before, and partners know what we're talking about. Sure, Redmond slipped big time with Vista, but Windows 7 looks like a winner. Yeah, Microsoft had a few rough financial quarters, but its last earnings report was pretty spectacular. Again and again, pundits want to write Microsoft off, to say that the Redmond giant is on its last legs.

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Posted by Lee Pender on March 25, 20103 comments


Microsoft To Drop Select Licensing

After July 1 of next year, Select Licensing will give way to ...Select Plus (which isn't actually new at all). Well, it at least sounds better, doesn't it? 

Posted by Lee Pender on March 24, 20100 comments


Symantec Introduces Web-Monitoring Service

Symantec is saying that its new hosted manage service can catch malware attacks right as they're happening, rather than after they've done their damage -- and, in some cases, before they even hit. Interesting stuff here (if we do say so ourselves...).

Posted by Lee Pender on March 24, 20100 comments


Microsoft OfficeTalk: Yet Another Way To Communicate

OK, so it's not a product yet, but it probably will be at some point. Or it'll be part of another product. And we're kind of wondering why.

We're referring here to OfficeTalk, a Microsoft project that's getting tons of attention right now. Here's how we've most often seen it described: Twitter for the workplace. Great. First, we here at RCPU have to get on Twitter because it's what everybody else is doing (something we still don't quite understand). Now, we're facing the possibility of having to deal with Twitter at work?

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Posted by Lee Pender on March 24, 20101 comments